French latest to realize the perils of e-voting

A study conducted in France has found that there were more counting …

A study conducted by a researcher in France has uncovered that polling locations which use electronic voting machines exhibit a higher number of discrepancies than those using conventional paper ballots. Unsurprising to those who have followed the problems plaguing e-voting since its introduction, the revelation has fueled renewed calls for greater scrutiny of electronic voting technology in France.

The study was conducted at over 21,000 polling stations by comparing electoral registers, which voters sign after voting, with the total vote counts from machines and paper ballots in several elections. Discrepancies were found at almost 30 percent of polling stations that use electronic machines and only at about 5 percent of those using paper ballots. Based on the results, the researcher believes that broader studies are needed to determine the scope of the pattern and the reasons for the discrepancies. The root cause is thought to be technical rather than a result of widespread operator error because the margin of discrepancies increased in later elections when voters were already familiar with the systems.

The results were announced at a press conference hosted by Ethical Citizen, a transparent voting advocacy group that partially funded the research. "For more than a year, Ms. Chantal Enguehard—a member of the Laboratory of Computer Science, Nantes Atlantique (CNRS UMR 6241)—conducted the study in conjunction with the Observatory of the vote to determine whether it was possible to observe quantitatively alterations or improvements to the functioning of polling stations equipped with computers to vote," said Ethical Citizen in a statement. "The first results, announced at the press conference, confirm this hypothesis and show the need to develop for the future tools that will enable independent evaluators to to measure the quality and reliability of elections."

France has had a rocky relationship with electronic voting since the introduction of the technology in 2004. The machines have faced significant criticism from organizations across the political spectrum and have been met with particularly high skepticism from elderly voters who distrust the machines and have difficulty operating them. The country suffered an electronic voting catastrophe last year—the first time that the machines have been used for a presidential election. Voting was disrupted by the same kind of technical problems and machine failures that we have seen plague many elections in the United States.

Electronic voting technology is fraught with risk and endangers the transparency of elections. Security audits conducted on virtually all of the major voting machines in use today have been found to have seriousflaws that can be exploited to interfere with or manipulate the outcome of elections. The latest problems uncovered in France further demonstrate the need for greater scrutiny and skepticism—if not a return to good, old paper.